In this episode Steve Burnett and Mike Roy talk to Gill and John Graaf after they made the hardest choice.

THE HARDEST CHOICE

How do you make the decision to stop, to call it, to accept that you are going no further. The trail is there in front of you. The pull to get on your bike and ride is like an uncontrollable force in your soul. Physically you are strong and fit. You still have the time to get there before the cut-off.

We’re just ordinary riders, taking on a challenge way beyond anything we have done before. We are not new to the trail. We’ve ridden almost the entire route since we signed up for the very first Freedom Circuit. We have helped run a support station and done some Buffalo Herding. We’re confident with navigation and riding in the dark and potential bad weather. We have been dot-watchers for years. We knew it was going to be hard on an extreme level. We knew that it was realistically going to take us around 24 days.

Every day is hard or even harder and long. There’s quite a lot of muttering about life choices at some point every day. There’s another monstrous climb or rocky portage. It’s cold and dark and there’s an icy wind blowing when the day starts that doesn’t really go away. You’ve been wearing dirty, damp, smelly clothes for 3 days. Your feet are constantly cold and wet.

You will make it to the next support station. It’s welcoming and dry and warm and comforting. Things don’t seem so bad, you had a good day, saw beautiful landscapes, remote untouched valleys, rivers and streams, encountered beautiful people and you can go another day. Routines are easier, bike admin, body admin, eat, sleep, ride. The weather has been really kind. It is cold, the odd short rain shower, no snow, mostly sunny.

The sunrises and sunsets are glorious. It’s magnificently beautiful out there at the moment. The Karoo is so green. The aloes are blooming, millions of wildflowers everywhere. You can hear the bees and birds and the fynbos is a fragrant sensory overload. An aardwolf crossed the road in front of you. There was a dawn chorus of lions roaring at the safari camp.

Full Freedom Challenge route description for a 21 day ride by Mike Woolnough

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